Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Support Services

NOTICE: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. The information provided in response to this notice will assist the Government in determining the extent of all firms, awarded a General Services Administration, Federal Supply Schedule (GSA, FSS) contract or non-GSA, FSS contractors, large, small, socio-economic market for the type of work described herein. The intent of the announcement is to identify sources that are qualified business concerns capable of providing the National Ocean Service (NOS) with NRDA services. It is anticipated that a Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract or a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) may be awarded as a result of any solicitation/quote issued for this project. On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Rig in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), approximately 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta. The resulting oil Spill of National Significance exposed and potentially injured natural resources in many areas of the Gulf of Mexico; the magnitude and duration of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is unprecedented. As a result, the natural resource trustees (i.e., state and federal agencies and federally recognized tribes) have initiated a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). The purpose of the proposed contract is to: 1) support NOAA's Damage Assessment Remediation and Restoration Program (DARRP) capability to evaluate the effects of the DWH oil spill as they relate to the natural resources and associated services of interest to NOAA in the Gulf Region under Oil Pollution Act (OPA); 2) to successfully complete a NRDA to quantify damages and determine the appropriate restoration to compensate the environment and public for injured natural resources and associated lost services; and 3) to pursue a claim against BP and other Responsible Parties under OPA. The NRDA activities (A - F) outlined here serve as examples only, and do not represent the universe of work that could be considered under this SOW. Relative to the activities of an NRDA described below, the Contractor shall work closely with the DARRP Case Management Team (CMT, a group of trustee representatives that comprise the breadth of expertise and interest needed to effectively address a damage assessment case) to: 1) Develop a defensible strategy for documenting and quantifying injury, and evaluating and scaling restoration alternatives; 2) identify and assess alternative strategies and options; 3) plan specific projects or investigations/assessments; 4) implement and manage the assessments and projects (i.e., environmental sampling, injury assessments, data management, economic valuations) to ensure that they are consistent with the overall case strategy, project objectives, and standards of performance; 5) facilitate interaction among scientific (natural sciences, economics, and resource restoration) disciplines and between legal and scientific perspectives by coordinating or leading conference calls and meetings, and proactively managing the effective interaction of studies towards a common goal/purpose; 6) facilitate and ensure peer review; and 7) proactively coordinate the interaction and communication between natural resource agency trustee representatives and project stakeholders. The Contractor must provide (in-depth technical expertise and project management skills) support for each component of the NRDA and ensure that coordination and flow of information among different teams is consistent with the strategies (see above), and is effective in developing the injury information and analyses needed to scale injury, to plan restoration, and to pursue a successful claim under the NRDA regulations. Activity A - Injury Assessment (Ecological and Human use) and Data Management The Contractor shall provide all services necessary to carry out specific Pathway Determinations and Injury Assessment activities including development of an appropriate NRDA strategy, identification of suitable collaborative Principal Investigators (PIs), development of detailed sampling, analysis, and Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) procedures, and data management and information flow. In support of this activity, the Contractor may be required to perform the following: 1) Collect and interpret scientific information; 2) Conduct sampling in diverse ecosystems and laboratory analyses of field-collected data; 3) Implement studies (e.g., toxicity, telemetry, reproduction); 4) Conduct analysis of natural resource injury; 5) Evaluate direct human use impacts through field-collected activity data (e.g., fishing, beach use); 6) Develop valuation study; 7) Evaluate survey data and other potential impacts; 8) Implement NOAA Data Management for DWH NRDA program to capture, organize, store, analyze and archive data; 9) Collect and use appropriate baseline information to aid evaluation of injury; 10) Quantify injuries with defensible methods that contribute to scaling restoration alternatives and determination of lost value; and, 11) Prepare draft and final reports; document work completed to support settlement discussion/litigation. Activity B - Modeling Increase the robustness of water column models; interact with other researchers and experts to improve the water column modeling (both large and small scale hydrodynamic models of GOM); Implement site-specific adaptations of the Type A model (SIMAP models - Similarity Matrix of Proteins) or other models or portions of models deemed appropriate for water column or other resource areas of interest. The contractor shall assist with compiling and analyzing biological information to support eventual injury quantification with models, including organizing information into formats to facilitate data analysis and interpretation of model results. Activity C - Determine Compensation for Interim Losses/Scaling Restoration Alternatives Apply defensible economic methods to determine interim lost value to scale restoration projects, including any necessary collection of data, including, but not limited to: Habitat Equivalency Analysis, Travel Cost Method, Stated Preference Methods such as Conjoint Analysis, Benefits Transfer Approach. Develop and implement framework to quantify the total economic value of lost resources and services prepared in anticipation of potential litigation and provide documentation for and facilitate Peer Review. Activity D - Restoration Planning Use relevant data from activities A through C above to identify and evaluate a range of potentially feasible restoration alternatives for restoring injured natural resources and services to baseline and compensating for interim losses. Estimate the costs or other requirements of implementing the restoration alternatives and perform early planning studies of selected restoration methods. Activity E - Management and Administration The Contractor shall be responsible for case management Plan. The Contractor shall compile and update information on NRDA projects in the areas of pathway determination, injury determination, injury quantification, damages determination, and restoration methodology evaluation. Such responsibilities shall include management of project objectives, costs, schedules, investigators, and peer review, and also assisting with public dissemination of information and outreach. The Contractor may be required to prepare an evaluation of restoration alternatives based on criteria identified in the OPA regulations, and a draft Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessment for public review; and prepare any other documents or materials needed for public review or for the Administrative Record, and to assist in development of QA/QC guidelines and protocols for NOAA and assist PIs and project personnel in data and document retention and archive requirements. Activity F - Litigation Support The Contractor may be provide recommendations concerning the strength of the case, to retain experts and witnesses, assist during discovery process and prepare experts for depositions and testimony in court. Supplemental Information that may be needed for subsequent Acquisition documentation Standards of Performance Work products and technical information provided from the performance of this work will be used to begin to quantify the natural resource damages associated with the Deepwater Horizon spill. All information generated for responding to this spill is in the context of a damage assessment to be litigated in Federal Court. Accordingly, all work must meet high standards of professional performance and technical rigor. Only highly qualified and experienced professionals shall be utilized to design and implement the services outlined herein. Absolute objectivity must be maintained to ensure that reliable and valid conclusions are reached. Work products and results must be clearly documented and supported with relevant technical standards, methods and procedures. All persons responsible for the work products shall be willing and capable of explaining their actions/rationale in depositions and trial. It is anticipated that an Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract or a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) may be awarded as a result of any solicitation/quote issued for this project. The period of performance will be one base period (beginning approximately August or September 2011) with four one-year option periods. If a BPA is awarded, the period of performance may be longer. The North American Industry Classification Code (NAICS) is 561410 with a size standard of $7M. All contractors doing business with the Government are required to be registered with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR). In addition, completion of the online representation and certifications application (ORCA) is required. NOTE: THIS SYNOPSIS IS NOT CONSIDERED A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL BUT A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. No solicitation document is available. No contract/BPA will be awarded on the basis of responses received to this notice. All interested parties must respond to this announcement by November 4, 2010. Interested firms shall provide a response that includes, but is not be limited to: (1) the contractor's name, address, point of contact, telephone number, DUNS Number, CCR Cage Number, business type and size, i.e., small, large, non-profit, educational, contractor's General Services Administration, Federal Supply Schedule (GSA, FSS) contract number (if applicable), etc., (2) a brief narrative and documentation to support the contractor's capability, experience and expertise of personnel as well as the organization to meet the requirements herein, (3) any potential conflicts of interest relating to BP Oil or the Deepwater Horizon related-work, (4) a brief description of previous and current contracts performed within the past three years which are similar in scope to the requirements listed herein, including a reference name of Government or commercial organization, contract number, point of contact name and phone number or email address, and short description of the services provided, and (5) provide the names and business size of any potential teaming arrangement and/or subcontractors. The response should be in sufficient detail to permit evaluation and consideration by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement, to restrict the project to small businesses, a socio-economic group, or to GSA, FSS contractors. Any response that does not include this information will not be considered. The Government will review each response to determine if the contractor has the experience, knowledge, and capability to perform the services as specified above. Detailed information must be submitted by email to the address noted below by 2:00 PM local Seattle time (PDT), November 4, 2010. Email Address: Sharon.S.Kent@noaa.gov. Questions of any nature must be addressed in writing to the email address noted above as NO TELEPHONE INQUIRIES WILL BE HONORED.